Six teams in Kasarani receive 5 million sponsorship from SportPesa

Lead online gaming firm SportPesa once again renewed its commitment to uplifting the sporting sector in the country as it unveiled a 5 million sponsorship kitty to six grassroot teams drawn from Kasarani Constituency in a ceremony held on Wednesday at the Muhuri Muchiri Grounds in Kasarani.

Led by CEO Hon Ronald Karauri, the gaming firm also presented the six teams with brand new home and away kits that will support them for the 2023/24 football season in their respective leagues.

The sextuple which included Victors Faith FC, Mwiki United, Ruai United, Kasarani Football Club, Maaji Mazuri FC and the sole female team Ruai Starlets competed with 43 other teams and emerged winners for the season-changing lucrative sponsorship from SportPesa.

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Speaking at the function that was attended by Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba, Karauri encouraged the teams to make the most out of the season-long sponsorship as he reiterated SportPesa’s commitment to supporting teams from the lower tiers.

“As SportPesa, we have always had a programme of supporting grassroot football from way before. Previously we paid for the FKF affiliation fees to ensure that all the teams get to play and now we have this sponsorship.

Our aim is that this sponsorship will help these teams to climb up their respective leagues and earn promotion to the next level. I want to see the respective teams from Kasarani going on to become the biggest in Nairobi,” the Kasarani Member of Parliament said.

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Namwamba on his part lauded the grassroot initiative as he singled out SportPesa for praise, urging other corporates to follow in the footsteps of the gaming giant who continue to set the benchmark in the sporting sector.

I can attest that Honourable Karauri has supported sports for a very long time and I would love to congratulate this latest initiative. The Ministry of Sports will support all the efforts and I want to laud SportPesa for their keen interest in sports.

The way to go is through the corporates chipping in the sporting sector and SportPesa are showing it.

They are currently sponsoring record Kenyan champions Gor Mahia, Murang'a Seal who have been recently promoted to the topflight and now six grassroot teams aside from the men’s national rugby 7s team Shujaa. I want to encourage the rest to follow what they are doing,” he said.

Ruai Starlets captain Mary Wangeci expressed her delight after her team was selected to benefit from the sponsorship saying, “We thought as girls that we would be left behind but I am thankful to SportPesa for giving us this sponsorship. We had serious challenges before but now we are proud to own two sets of playing jerseys which will ease the burden on us.”

Kennedy Mugo, the Maaji Mazuri team manager, promised to repay the faith shown in them by SportPesa as the sponsorship would sort most of their off-field problems.

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“We have had financial challenges because most of our players are students so raising the money for away games and the affiliation fee has been hard because of the circumstances.

This sponsorship will help us to be competitive now because we have the motivation and we are promising SportPesa that we will repay their faith by giving our best this season to get promoted,” he said.